1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to floating objects, more specifically to a floating platform that floats on the surface of the ocean, in particular, in the area of the equator, and, specifically, in the area of the Cromwell equatorial current, which was discovered in the Pacific Ocean.
2. Description of the Prior Art
It is known that unique weather conditions characterize the equatorial section of the Pacific Ocean: the absence of storms, a significant prevalence of sunny days throughout the year, a constant wind direction, and a high background temperature. All of these factors are favorable to the construction of floating islands, on which people can work or take vacations.
In 1951, the Cromwell equatorial current was discovered in the Pacific Ocean. It measures up to 250 m in depth and stretches over more than 300 km across and about 800 km in length. Later, such equatorial currents with similar characteristics were discovered in the Atlantic Ocean and the Indian Ocean, i.e., the Lomonosov current in the Atlantic and the Tareev current in the Indian Ocean, respectively. These currents with similar characteristics have speeds up to 150 cm/s and are aligned along the equator but at an angle of 180° to the equatorial surface current (see N. K. Haichenko, Sistema Ekvatorialnikh Protivotechenii v Okeane [The Oceanic System of Equatorial Countercurrents], pub. Gidrometeoizdat, Leningrad, 1974, 158 p.; V. A. Burkov, Obshchaya Tsirkulyatsiya Mirovogo Okeana [General Circulation in the World Ocean], pub. Gidrometeoizdat, Leningrad, 1980, 156 p.). All of these currents are part of the world oceanic current system and have similar hydrodynamic characteristics.
A floating island is known to have been built in the form of a flower and to contain an independent power source to maintain life on the island (see British Patent GB, A, 2097340). However, this floating island is intended only for coastal use, to be deployed in calm, enclosed bays; it cannot be used in the open sea.
Another floating island is intended for seaside resorts and consists of foam plastic sheets linked together (see German Patent DE, A, 3336352). However, this island is difficult to control and can only drift along the surface current or be tugged by another vessel.
In addition, neither of the two above islands uses the energy of underwater currents for the purpose of movement. The most similar proposal to this idea is a drifting station for oceanographic research that consists of a buoy and a large container, as well as an underwater sail, which is connected to the buoy with a wire cable. A load is attached to the underwater sail, which has a fastening junction (See Russian Patent Publication SU, A, 1113303). The structure of the station described here ensures that it drifts with a velocity equal to that of the surface current, and does not allow for alteration of the direction of travel, for any movement against the current, or for maintaining a position at any given coordinate. The sail of this apparatus is intended to guarantee that the buoy drifts with a speed equal to that of the surrounding water, therefore reducing the magnitude of drift due to wind.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,694,910 issued on Feb. 24, 2004 to Sergey Sharapov discloses a floating island for enabling control of its movement or stability on the surface of the water, which flows in a given direction and in which the surface overlies an underwater current flow in another direction at an angle with respect to the given direction. The floating island comprises a main body having underwater and surface sections of positive buoyancy, an underwater sail having at least one side with a frontal area, and a system of cables that connect the sail with the underwater section. The cables position the sail so that the frontal area of its one side is at a lateral angle with respect to the given direction of the underwater current. The lateral angle is sufficient to cause the underwater current flow to impact against the frontal area with a force having a magnitude F that is transmitted from the sail through the system of cables to the floating island. The structure also has a mechanism for varying the lateral angle of the one side with respect to the given direction sufficient to vary the magnitude F of force to cause either movement of the floating island in a desired direction on the surface or maintenance of its stability with respect to the water.
Also known is U.S. Pat. No. 7,575,397 issued on Aug. 18, 2009 to Sergey Sharapov. This patent discloses a floating platform with a nonuniformly distributed load that is intended for supporting industrial, commercial, cultural, and dwelling structures and is suitable for deployment in shallow as well as in deep waters. The platform is assembled from prefabricated hollow structural elements in such a way that the unified center of load mass, which consists of a plurality of arbitrarily distributed loads of different masses supported by the platform, is always maintained in the same position, and the platform is always maintained in a horizontally counterbalanced position. This is achieved by locally adjusting the buoyancy of the structural elements. Furthermore, the loads are positioned on the platform so that movements created by these loads relative to the aforementioned unified center of masses are equal. This allows maintaining the loads on the platform in equilibrium.
An article published by Mostafa Shahrabi and Khosrow Bargi in Frontiers of Structural and Civil Engineering, September 2013, Volume 7, Issue 3, pp. 325-331 under the title “Numerical simulation of multibody floating piers to investigate pontoon stability” discloses a study aimed at developing a procedure to analyze the motion of a floating pier comprised of several pontoons that are modeled as rigid bodies and are connected by flexible and rigid connectors. Recently, the use of floating piers has increased because of their advantages, such as faster and higher-quality construction, seismic force isolation for a full-scale mooring system, low dependence on local soil conditions and tides, ability to relocate or reconfigure the pier modules during the operational period, and 75 to 100 years of repair-free service. A floating pier consists of a pier, access bridge, mooring system, and fender system, each of which comes in many variations to suit different uses and construction considerations. The typical loads used in the design of these piers are dead loads, live loads, mooring loads, fender loads, and environmental loads induced by wind, currents, and waves. For numerical simulation, three types of piers are used: passenger piers, light-cargo piers, and semiheavy-cargo piers. The selected piers consist of several large pontoons that are joined by pivots and that have a pile-based mooring system. These piers are modeled by SAP2000 software (Computers and Structures, Inc. (CSI), Walnut Creek, Calif.) as two-dimensional frames that are linked together. As the first step, each type of pier is subjected to loading, and its general behavior is assessed. According to this behavior, major load combinations are described for the design of the piers and are analyzed to determine behavior of the modules. Lastly, according to analysis results and safe use and stability considerations, such as maximum draft and longitudinal gradient, the dimensions of each module in each pier type are presented.
Also known in the art are various projects for living on water. One such project is described in detail in the publication by Wayne Gramlich in 1999 on Seasteading—Homesteading the High Seas (http://gramlich.net/projects/oceania/seastead2/#Gramlich1999 and the SeaSteading Institute Book of 2010 (http://www.seasteading.org/book/seasteading-book-beta/). These publications disclose various inhabited structures on water that rest on the bottom of the sea, ocean, or other water basins.
Furthermore, due to relative shortness of its flight provided by the Earth's rotation, a satellite launched from the equator will consume less fuel and thus will provide proportional cost savings. On the other hand, as compared with a launch, e.g., from Cape Canaveral, USA, a rocket fully loaded with fuel and launched from the equator can lift a load of approximately 30%.
In view of the above, it would be advantageous to provide a rocket-launching site on the equator. Such attempts have been made. For example, a project named “Sea Launch” was established in 1995 as a consortium of four companies from Norway, Russia, Ukraine and the United States, which was managed by Boeing with participation from other shareholders. The first rocket was launched in March 1999. All commercial payloads have been communications satellites intended for geostationary transfer orbit with customers such as EchoStar and DirecTV.
All factors listed above maintain a growing interest in various projects aimed at more effective use of vast areas occupied by the world's oceans.